Bulkeley, Harriet; Kern, Kristine

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Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH

Abstract

"For over a decade climate change has been considered one of the most significant political issues facing the international community. In order to address this challenge, attention needs to be focused not only at the international level of treaties and conventions, but also on how climate protection policy is taking shape at the local level. Germany and the UK have been leading countries for international action on climate change. However, the reductions in domestic emissions of greenhouse gas emissions achieved benefited in both countries from specific circumstances. This report details the national climate change policy, the structure of local governments, their competencies and powers, the institutionalisation of local climate change policy, the most important spheres of action and the different roles played by municipalities in local climate protection policy in both countries. Despite the formal differences in the system of local government in Germany and the UK, the spheres of action as well as the roles of municipalities in local climate protection show clear tendencies towards convergence. The challenges in addressing greenhouse gas emissions from the transport and planning sectors have meant that in both countries attention has focused on the energy sector as the primary arena for local policy and local action. At the same time new governance forms dominate the roles taken by local governments with respect to climate protection. The role taken by local governments in Germany is becoming more 'enabling', and hence like the UK. The convergence between the two countries can be explained by internal (national) as well as external (European) factors. First, it is evident that the constitutionally guaranteed autonomy of German municipalities has been reduced considerably by their decreasing and inadequate financial resources, while UK local authorities have the potential to gain more autonomy. Second, British municipalities are mandated by the national government to take local climate and energy policy more seriously. Therefore, they have caught up with German municipalities, which are engaged in climate protection policy only on a voluntary basis. Third, the increasing European integration has significant impacts on local climate protection policy. The liberalisation of the energy and transport markets changed the German situation so that it is more akin to the UK situation, where many services are no longer provided by the municipalities themselves. The increasing convergence of both countries in the area of local climate protection suggests that there is considerable scope for experimentation with new policy instruments and for cross-national learning at the local level between German and British municipalities." (author's abstract)